The Best Blue Chip Stock to Buy After This Year's Market Pullback

McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) has agelong been a subordinate of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The U.S.'s largest accelerated nutrient edifice concatenation serves arsenic a bellwether for user sentiment and the authorities of the economy.

In the archetypal 4th of 2026, user sentiment was not good, and that did not assistance McDonald's banal astatine all. But things truly fell isolated successful March aft the warfare successful Iran began.

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McDonald's shares are down astir 9% twelvemonth to date. But since the warfare successful Iran started, shares person tanked 18%, going from $341 per stock connected Feb. 27 to the existent $278 per share.

When McDonald's released Q1 2026 net connected May 7, the results for this bluish spot banal were solid. Revenue jumped 9% to $6.5 billion, portion comparable sales, tracking the year-over-year show of existing restaurants, roseate 3.8% from the aforesaid 4th a twelvemonth ago. Systemwide sales, the magnitude spent by customers astatine each of its restaurants worldwide, roseate 11% twelvemonth implicit twelvemonth to $34 billion.

Net income roseate 6%, and net accrued 7% to $2.78 per stock -- beating estimates.

The March swoon had mostly to bash with sentiment related to ostentation and economical uncertainty. There was besides a just spot of insider selling successful March, with executives apt taking profits aft shares surged to implicit $340 per stock successful February.

McDonald's is astatine a 52-week debased

Some of those concerns were valid arsenic McDonald's saw its U.S.-store margins compress to "not acceptable" levels successful Q1, CFO Ian Borden said connected the Q1 net call. This was owed to rising costs portion the institution was trying to support prices down. Borden said the institution volition look to amended show and optimize the franchisee-versus-company ownership balance.

CEO Christopher Kempczinski noted that the macroenvironment was not improving and whitethorn get worse successful the adjacent term. He added that April comps are debased and that McDonald's expects "meaningful deceleration" successful comparable income successful the 2nd quarter.

On the positive side, the institution is focused connected making nutrient much affordable, with caller McValue and Meal Deal paper items to amended traffic. This past week, analysts astatine Jefferies added McDonald's to its Franchise Picks database for its caller worth offerings, among different reasons.

With its worth paper and different factors, Stifel expert Chris O'Cull said that McDonald's banal is poised for a near-term bounce.